How To Use Facebook's Like Plugin On Your Website

Facebook’s like button shows up on hundreds of thousands of websites, and more add them every day. Fortunately, the recent redesign of the icon doesn’t require you to change anything that you’ve already installed.

The like button’s facelift was so subtle that many people still haven’t even noticed the difference. And the redesign so far doesn’t appear to have changed the rate that people click on the icon.

As one of the most popular ways for users to interact on Facebook, the like button remains a powerful way to drive traffic to your website as well.When visitors enjoy your content, they simply click the like button to show appreciation. As soon as they click the button, a link to your website and a message declaring the person likes it appears in their news feeds. Since friends often share the same interest, this can drive focused traffic back to your website.

You can place a like button practically anywhere on your website. If you sell books, try placing a like button in the book descriptions. If you write a blog, try including a like button in each of your posts. Some websites use the like button as a makeshift voting mechanism, prompting visitors to click like if they agree with a post, or would like to see more items like the one for sale.

Code for the like button appears among the plugins subsection of Facebook’s developers portion of the website. Installing this icon, or any of the other plugins is a breeze: a small piece of code goes into the <BODY> section of your website’s HTML code, and like magic, the plugin appears. You can choose to use either an iFrame, or XFBML, JavaScript code.

Readers, please let us know in the comments section how and whether the recent minor redesign of the like button has in any way affected your site.